The majority of chief tax officers at multibillion-dollar companies plan to outsource more work to outside providers over the next few years, according to a new survey from KPMG.
The Big Four firm
Outsourcing can free up in-house tax employees from tedious compliance tasks. KPMG is positioning itself to provide more outsourced corporate tax services. The firm plans to expand its Tax Reimagined services and is investing $5 billion in technology, people and innovation to accelerate digital transformation, andover $1 billion in tax and legal technology.
Outsourcing also helps with the hiring challenges faced by many companies, especially with tax and technology expertise. The survey found that 56% of the chief tax officers polled said hiring talent is a significant challenge, while 44% are shifting toward hiring professionals with a healthy mix of tax and technology skills.
Chief tax officers are seeing a number of risks out there to their organizations, including environmental, governance and social matters. The top three threats to a tax organizations' growth they cited over the next three years are ESG, regulatory and geopolitical risk. Less than half (47%) said their tax department is currently engaged with the business in exploring ESG-related risks and opportunities.
"The change that chief tax officers must grapple with is rapid, relentless and coming from all directions," said Greg Engel, vice chair for tax at KPMG LLP, in a statement last week. "It makes perfect sense for CTOs to ramp up their interest in outsourcing models given the current economic, regulatory and talent environment. In fact, it's best practice for companies to periodically reassess their need for these models to address changing dynamics in the market and equip themselves with the right resources to compete and succeed."
